December 21, 2004

Posting doctors' malpractice histories

New Jersey's new practice of posting physicians' payout histories (at njdoctorlist.com) has several distinct advantages for plaintiff's lawyers -- it can help them decide whether to take cases, give them the jump on discovery, and enable them to develop arguments that defendants were on notice of problems -- but also a potentially serious disadvantage: according to the New Jersey Law Journal, scattered reports suggest that doctors are becoming more reluctant to approve settlements now that they can do so only in the public glare.